Candidates from SLP invested money… to lose

In the past elections, spending on campaigns did not return in good results

By José Luis Vázquez

Thanks to the Accountability and Audit information found on the website of the National Electoral Institute (INE), La Orquesta was able to find out how much the candidates spent at the federal level in the last elections of July 1 in San Luis Potosí. In our state there are seven federal districts and in each of them three candidates from the different coalitions participated («Together We Will Do History», «For Mexico To the Front» and «All for Mexico»), so there were twenty-one profiles that contended for one federal deputation plus the six that were looking for a senatorship, that is, 27 postulants who spent a total of 31 million 026 thousand 384.72 pesos for their campaigns but … who spent more? Who less? How much did each vote cost?One of the most striking details is that, unlike other occasions, a bulky spending campaign did not mean good results. On the contrary, this time those who moderated their expenses ended, in most cases, with victory.In any case, the results presented below correspond to expenditures registered in official instances, so that non-audited expenditures, a practice that usually appears in the policy, could not be taken into consideration.I FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN MATEHUALAIn this district, the winner was Ma. Sara Rocha Medina (All for Mexico), who obtained 66 thousand 792 votes and spent 423 thousand 377.47 pesos, that means that each vote cost her 6.33 pesos; the former candidate of Juntos Haremos Historia, Ariel Josué Chávez Reyna, invested more than double, 549 thousand 774.01 pesos in resources and seized 40 thousand 601 votes, for which he paid 13.54 pesos for each one of them; by Juan José Jover Navarro of the For Mexico To the Front coalition voted a total of 53,224 people and made an expenditure of 596 thousand 948.02 pesos, meaning that for each suffrage he paid 11.21 pesos.

José Luis Romero

II FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN SOLEDAD DE GRACIANO SÁNCHEZIn this area, José Luis Romero Calzada (All for Mexico) recorded an expenditure of 590 thousand 458.13 pesos and only managed 52 thousand 796 votes, each cost 11.18 pesos; 889 thousand 924.79 pesos is what José Ricardo Gallardo Cardona spent (For Mexico To the Front), who won the victory with 82 thousand 160 votes and where each of them cost him 10.83 pesos; Jesus Maria Hernandez Reyna, a vote cost him 11.68 pesos, since he disbursed 590 thousand 466.78 pesos and by him 50 thousand 545 people voted. III FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN RIOVERDEWith 38 thousand 904 votes obtained and 673 thousand 378.02 pesos in expenses, Ana María González Castellanos (Together We Will Do History) used 17.30 pesos for each of them while Jorge Luis Diaz Salinas (For Mexico to the Front) paid 12.07, and it was invested 672 thousand 873.69 pesos in his campaign and obtained 55 thousand 711 votes in total; the now deputy-elect, Óscar Bautista Villegas (All for Mexico) spent 270 thousand 626.87 pesos and won 61,857 votes, this is 4.37 pesos per vote.

IV FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN CIUDAD VALLESAccording to the calculations made by La Orquesta, José Ricardo DelSol Estrada (Together We Will Make History) disbursed 8.49 pesos for each of the 57 thousand 650 votes that he got, he made a total expenditure of 489 thousand 456.72 pesos thus achieving victory; Margarita Ibarra Villanueva (All for Mexico) used 405 thousand 933.16 of monetary resources, with which 43 thousand 597 votes were obtained and where each cost 9.31 pesos. On the other hand, Raquel Hurtado Barrera (For Mexico To the Front) invested 15.17 pesos for each vote, for which she spent a total of 687 thousand 231.61 pesos, appropriating 45 thousand 276 votes.

Paloma Rachel Aguilar

Luis Mahbub

V FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN SAN LUIS POTOSÍThe winner of this district was the panist Josefina Salazar Báez, who seized 86,943 votes using 681,332.99 pesos, each one costing her 7.83 pesos; the priista Martha Orta Rodríguez spent 444 thousand 107.25 pesos and for it 33 thousand 671 citizens voted, each suffrage was worth 13.18 pesos; the other competitor was Paloma Rachel Aguilar Correa de Morena, who for each of the 57 thousand 145 votes she won, spent 11.21 pesos.VI FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN SAN LUIS POTOSÍAmelia Araiza Dávila (Together we will make history) used 492 thousand 269.96 pesos in campaign, with which she could reach 66 thousand 252 votes: for each one she invested 7.43 pesos; Ma. Guadalupe Almaguer Pardo (For Mexico to the Front) was the triumphant in the sixth district with 67 thousand 106 votes in his favor, each one cost him 8.22 pesos, in other words, he wasted 551 thousand 531.63 pesos; the contender of All for Mexico, Miguel Torres Hernández, paid 13.64 pesos for each vote of the 31 thousand 812 that he joined, spent 434 thousand 124.64 pesos in total.VII FEDERAL DISTRICT WITH HEADQUARTERS IN TAMAZUNCHALEDistrict VII was a very close competition. The difference between the winner and the second place was 93 votes; Marcelino Rivera Hernández (For Mexico to the Front) got 63 thousand 702 votes and spent 707 thousand 457.70 pesos, that is, he disbursed 11.10 pesos per vote to win; followed by Bernarda Reyes Hernández (All for Mexico) who conquered 63 thousand 609 citizens and consumed 246 thousand 643.04 of resources, each suffrage costing 3.87 pesos; finally, Alfonso Felipe Josefa (Together We Will Make History) got 48 thousand 186 votes in which each one was worth 14.64 pesos, in total he used 705 thousand, 858.37 pesos.

Luis Mahbub Sarquis

HOW MUCH WERE SPENDED FOR THE SENATE?Regarding the former candidates for the Senate of the Republic of San Luis Potosí, the amounts that are handled by each of them are millionaire, in total, they spent 19 million 281 thousand 563.65 pesos for their campaigns.Ma. Leonor Noyola Cervantes and Marco Antonio Gama Basarte, belong to the winning formula, between the two spent 8 million 032 thousand 416.64 pesos and won 428 thousand 815 votes, that is, each cost 18.73 pesos.The formula of Together We Will Make History formed by Primo Dothé Mata and María Josefina Banda Zermeño, achieved 379 thousand 627 votes in the whole state, invested an amount of 5 million 442 thousand 537.11 pesos, so each vote cost 14.33 pesos; It is worth mentioning that only Dothé obtained the senatorship.Those who were left without a federal seat were the ex-candidates of Todos Por México, Luis Antonio Mahbub Sarquís and María Rebeca Terán Guevara who paid 16.33 pesos for each vote, while they spent a total of 5 million 806 thousand 609.90 pesos, obtaining 354 thousand 927 votes.